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Thursday, September 29, 2016

POEA lifts deployment ban on OFWs returning to Libya

The government has lifted the processing and deployment of returning Filipino workers with valid and existing contracts to Libya following the downgrading of the alert level there.

From Level 4 (mandatory evacuation), the alert level in Libya has been downgraded to Level 2 (restriction phase), allowing the deployment of returning OFWs.

The partial lifting of the deployment ban was formalized in Resolution No. 16 of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) Board.

"The POEA Governing Board now allows the resumption of the processing and deployment of Filipino workers to Libya," said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who chairs the POEA Governing Board, in a statement Wednesday.

The order noted that only returning OFWs with valid and existing contracts are allowed to be deployed in Libya. For this they must submit the following:

copies of existing contracts;

certification of salaries and benefits of OFWs;

letter from the employer requesting for the return of the OFWs;

security and safety guarantees through valid company certifications; medical and life insurance coverage; and

guarantee of immediate repatriation based on submitted contingency plans

Bello said the deployment ban for newly hired OFWs shall be maintained until further notice.

The POEA suspended the processing and deployment of OFWs bound for Libya on May 30, 2014 due to the heightened political unrest there.

On June 13, 2014, Governing Board Resolution No. 9 was issued which allowed for the processing and deployment of certain skills categories of returning workers to Libya, while on July 22, 2014, the POEA, through Resolution No. 17, allowed additional skills categories of returning workers.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has conducted jobsite visit to Libya to assess the general situation there on August 18. —KBK, GMA News